The lack of water in different parts of Randfontein is having a devastating impact on local businesses and leaves many digging deep into their pockets to ensure they have some form of water supply to meet their demand.
This comes after Rand Water implemented a water shutdown for 58 hours as of Tuesday night, July 11 which led to the lack of water availability in different parts of the province.
The Randfontein Herald took to the streets to get a sense of how small businesses are affected by this, particularly those that rely on water for their operations.
Esther Nqobile from a hair salon in the CBD said the lack of water has been frustrating for her and her clientele as she cannot wash her clients’ hair.
She had to make costly alternative plans to keep the doors open and mentioned how embarrassing it is to not be able to offer her clients the convenience of using the salon’s toilet.
“We are heavily affected by the water outage in numerous ways and it has made business a bit difficult for us. We are in the winter season and business is already slow for us. We however now find ourselves in a position where we have to bear the extra costs of making sure we’ve got alternative ways of doing things, due to the lack of water. As it stands, we avoid washing people’s hair the traditional way and have to use the dry washing method. This is where we use de-tangling products to ensure that our clients’ hair is clean and this is an extra expense for us,” said Nqobile.
Meanwhile, the Herald also spoke to Lekraam Jardine who makes and sells Atchar in the CBD.
“We use a lot of water in terms of hygiene as this is quite important and as a result. We have had to stock up on quite a few buckets of water just to carry us through our operations. We package a lot of Atchar and hygiene is of paramount importance to us and this has had a hit on our finances,” said Jardine.
Meanwhile, Rand West City Local Municipality spokesperson Phillip Montshiwa initially stated that it may take up to two weeks until water is fully restored.
He also notified residents of the water shutdown implemented by Rand Water and advised them to store sufficient water supply for the duration of the shutdown.
